Chapter 14 - A MAN A PLAN A CANAL PANAMA
Thursday May 7th
Today's Navigators:
The more observant among you will have realised that this chapter's title is a palindrome, blatantly stolen from Captain Ken Puckett who, more than likely, blatantly stole it from somebody else. Just to prove I actually learned something while I was on the cruise.
I did not sleep well at all the night before the transit. I woke up several times throughout the night, one minute I was hot, the next I was cold. I started to worry that I was coming down with the illness which seemed to have plagued Theresa since we boarded. Or maybe I was just excited for the day ahead. After all, this was the pinnacle, the highlight, the reason for this cruise. However, there was a bittersweet element to today since this marked the halfway point through the cruise and marked the start of the second week on board - and we all know the second week of a holiday goes far quicker than the first!
At 5am, I turned on the TV and navigated to the webcam channel. I mumbled to Gary that there was nothing to see. “That’s because it’s the middle of the night” he moaned. Nonetheless, I got up and got showered and dressed. Gary refused to get out of bed so I decided to head up on deck to see if there was anything going on. There were a few people already gathered at the forward end of deck 10 and I joined some of our group, Athene and Brendan, Kathleen and Ron, Vicky and ‘Jif’ on the port side. It was a bit misty but you could already see plenty of boats moored up around us and a breakwater up ahead. The sun was just coming up but it was already very hot and humid.
I was panicking that Gary would continue to sleep and miss the one thing we were here for, so I asked Athene and Brendan to save us a spot and went back to the room to drag him out of bed. Back up on deck 10, we were joined by a few others and we soon had a nice little group gathered. Gary eventually arrived and grabbed himself a cup of tea from the hot drinks station which was set up on deck 10 forward. This was a great idea, however I wish they would have had cold/iced water there too since it was already really hot and we had to walk all the way aft to get water. They also had some small pastries available with the tea/coffee so I made Gary grab me one.
Ron said we were going to go through the breakwater and I said that we weren’t. it turned out I was wrong. Who knew THAT could happen
Ron was very good, though, and didn’t go on about it – much! It was a really nice atmosphere, we were all laughing and joking and there was a great camaraderie.
Apparently the mood was not quite so good towards the front and centre of the ship. Some people had moved chairs to be able to sit right at the front, although a CM later made them move, which we were glad about. It was pretty selfish and also really restricted the area that people had to stand in up there. By now, there were quite a few of our group gathered on the port side and we were really having a great time.
A small boat passed by us and positioned itself on the port side, although I never quite managed to work out why it was there.
Before we arrived at Gatun locks, you could see the 'old' part of the canal, where the French made their first attempt to dig through. Pretty pitiful really - as Daniel put it, after we got home, "you ain't never gonna fit a ship through there".
As we slowly approached the first set of locks (Gatun locks), I had a real ‘pinch me’ moment. I couldn’t quite believe we were here and I felt very blessed to be on this beautiful ship, surrounded by the incredible people we had met just about to achieve something I had wanted to do for so long. I did a ‘water run’ and brought back iced water for the group, arriving back just in time for us to enter the first lock. I was astonished to see traffic driving across the canal, in front of the lock gates, literally right up until the last moment before the gates opened and we made our way into the first lock.
There was still a really great ambience, with people from our group moving out to make space for people to get in against the railing and take pictures. We were approaching the second lock of the three that form Gatun locks.
Sally walked by and told us they had a spot up front if I wanted to go and join them. Gary decided to go down to Vicky and Jif’s room to have a look from their verandah on deck 7. I stayed with the group, but a little while later a lady came up with a little girl and asked if the little girl could stand in front of us to see. Well, of course, we all moved aside to let her in and next thing the lady had pushed her way in front of us. After a few minutes, I asked her if she could move to the side so I could take a picture. She moved slightly to the right and, literally as soon as the shutter clicked, she stepped right back in front of me, completely obscuring my view.
I couldn’t be bothered to fight for my place so I decided to go and stand at the front with Sally. We were right into the first lock by now and we were able to see the ship rise as the water flooded in. It was so cool. There were Disney photographers stood on top of the lock gates taking pictures. Awesome!
As we started proceeding into the second lock, I decided to go and get some more water. Kim decided to come too and, after getting some drinks, we went to Kim and Terry’s room so she could change into her costume. We went out onto the secret deck on 7, where we found Terry.
We watched for a little while, from the back, but it wasn't quite as exciting as the front.
Julie and Jim were up on deck 8 so we chatted to them for a little while and then I went to go and get changed into my costume too. Back in the room, I discovered Gary’s swim shorts were missing so I guessed he might be at the pool, so that’s where I went. He wasn’t there but Kim was and so we grabbed a couple of loungers and just hung out for the next couple of hours. I had a mimosa and spent some time writing up my notes.
